UPDATE: Sterne Agee Initiates Coverage on Meta Financial Group with Buy Rating, $33 PT on Expected Improved Profitability

In a report published Friday, Sterne Agee analyst Matthew Kelley initiated coverage on Meta Financial Group CASH with a Buy rating and $33.00 price target. In the report, Kelley noted, “We are initiating coverage on Meta Financial with a Buy rating and $33 price target. We believe overall profitability is set to improve over the next two years as the company exits a regulatory order and begins to enter new 3rd-party contracts in the rapidly expanding prepaid card sector. In our view, the sum of the parts analysis (small Midwest community bank + payments business) points to a higher potential value. We believe the company can generate a 10% ROTE in the back half of fiscal 2014.” Meta Financial Group closed on Thursday at $27.07.